MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is a first person shooter and noir game published by FUMI Games and released on April 16th 2026. This game is the result of Steamboat Willie entering the public domain. Now, this game is actually really solid in my opinion. However, it kind of stirred up controversy with IGN rating this game a 6/10, saying that it wasn’t the noir experience they were looking for with the overuse of cheese jokes and less noir and detective stuff. First off, it’s not just a noir/detective game, it is a “boomer shooter.” Now aesthetically, it is really interesting. Essentially, it is based on 1920s rubber-hose cartoons and this carries out in both gameplay and aesthetics. The game is set in black and white and in a 3D environment with 2D characters. Almost everything is animated and hand drawn so beautifully. From the unique reloads from the guns, to the npcs, and even some parts of the environment. However, you can’t just be carried by visuals. You got to have gameplay and MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is fun.
Gameplay
The gameplay reminds me a lot of Doom and Bioshock: Infinite. In a level, you must mow down enemies and while you are doing that, you must collect evidence, which can range from documents, photos and posters. Now for the gun variety and balancing. It’s kind of unbalanced; some guns range from too powerful to mid. There is no in between for the weapon balancing. The guns range from the simple pistol, to a drumgun, to a double barrel shotgun that lights enemies on fire, to a giant cannon, and even a chainsaw sword stripped straight from Doom. Yeah the weapons go from average to insane real quick. There are a total of 10 unlockable guns in the game with a secret gun that I’ll get to later, so you have a decent amount of tools to use at your disposal. During a level, you could also receive temporary powerups. Your powerups such as the chili pepper that makes all your ammo that you shoot out be on fire, spinach that makes you strong like Popeye and restricts you to using your fists. But, at least your fists can one shot all enemies whilst in the form, and the finger gun that restricts you to a fingergun form with infinite ammo and deals weak damage long range and a lot of damage short range. If you get to low health you have to find heal drinks that can be found in as you tear through enemies or can be found in health cabinets. Running out of ammo, find ammo cases scattered across the level, each being towards a specific gun you are using or has been used.
Anyways, after a mission, you return to your car and make it back to your hub world. You actually have to do a lot in the hub world. You have to return to your office to hang up the evidence you collected from levels on your evidence board in order to solve your cases. Afterward, you could head to the mechanics in order to upgrade your guns with schematics.
Hub World
Schematics can be found during your missions in safes. Safes can be cracked open by tail picking. During the tailpicking phase, you have to use your tail to unlock each lock and open up the safe. Some safes have spikes and a timer, so you must be quick and careful. Once open, safes give cash and schematics. Anyways, back to the upgrades and these upgrades are impactful. You can upgrade each of your guns up to tier 4. Now, that might not seem like a lot, but these upgrades actually change the gun drastically and makes it more reliable and responsive. Let’s look at a side by side comparison with a non upgraded gun and its upgraded version real quick. The Devarnisher is an acid gun that sort of acts like a grenade launcher and it shoots acid bombs that deals area damage and poisons enemies until they die. This gun falls under the too powerful category I mentioned before but it has its flaws. For one, it is really inaccurate with its insane amount of recoil and it can only hold ten ammo per clip and can hold a max ammo of 24. But when you upgrade it to tier 2, it has less recoil, more damage, shoots out 2 projectiles instead of 2, and comes with an alt fire that shoots a big bomb that explodes after 2 seconds, dealing tons of damage.
As for the rest of the hub world, you could also visit the bar near your office and play a baseball card minigame. During the minigame, you have to have a better point value then your opponent with your cards and this determines the amount of bases you can go or if you can hit a homerun. You can find more baseball cards as a collectible during your missions as well as a mini figurine of you, similar to Doom. So if you want to win the baseball minigame more often, get searching. When you win a game, you receive a token. You can use that token in order to get the secret gun I mentioned before. That being the X1D Mousifier, a ray gun with no bullet drop. It is really good as a sniper and can help deal with long range enemies. So I would say it’s kind of worth it.
Story
It’s evidently clear that since it is a noir game, it’s bound to have a story and this game delivers. You play as Jack Pepper, a war veteran turned detective who lives in the corrupt city of Mouseburg. Your first case follows a missing magician that seemingly disappeared mid-show. This seemingly sounds not all that bad but it quickly spirals out of control as you unravel that it all ties together to a scheme from a corrupt politician making several plans to target, murder, and kidnap shrews, as one of them is running for mayor and the big mice don’t like the idea of that. So, they hire gangs and corrupt policemen to hunt down and kill the shrews. All of this while you have crippling debt. Yeah, this game is rough. But after all that, you actually uncover enough evidence to use against a corrupt politician and help the little guys fight for a better tomorrow.
Negatives and Final Review
I feel as though the major issues with this game are both the bugs and the gameplay loop. This game is a bit buggy, not like Cyberpunk 2099 on release but not that far from it, They did have a day one patch which wasn’t that big of a deal and most of, if not all the bugs were restored. As for the gameplay loop, it’s sort of boring if you play for long periods of time. You will get bored with this game the more you play it, so I highly recommend taking it slow when beating the game. Other than that, it’s a really fun and enjoyable experience with a beautifully hand drawn world, fun weapons, and overall a great game. This is a really good project coming out of Steamboat Willie entering the public domain. My final rating for this game is an 8/10. It’s a good time. Also by the way, sometimes you can see a certain German group that I can’t say but you can probably get an idea of what I’m referring to, so don’t say I didn’t warn if you were interested and wanted to play this game.
